Double Suicide Attack kills 6, Wounds 28 in Baghdad

Al-Akhbar is currently going through a transitional phase whereby the English website is available for Archival purposes only. All new content will be published in Arabic on the main website (www.al-akhbar.com).

Al-Akhbar Management

Published Thursday, January 29, 2015

A double suicide attack on a base housing militia groups fighting alongside the government north of Baghdad killed at least six people on Thursday, medical sources said.

"The car rammed an army checkpoint protecting access to the base" in Mishahada, a Baghdad hospital official said. The first blast killed at least three people, including a civilian.

Around five minutes later, a suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt blew himself up at the nearby entrance of the base, which was left exposed when soldiers rushed to the site of the first explosion.

Another three people were killed in the second blast, all of them members of militia groups that call themselves "popular mobilization" forces.

Another medical source confirmed the death toll and said at least 28 other people were wounded.

Mishahada is about 30 kilometers north of Baghdad, on the road to several frontlines where Iraqi forces and allied militias are battling the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Pro-government forces earlier this week expelled ISIS from its last urban bastion in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad.

"Iraqi forces are in complete control of all the cities and districts and subdistricts of Diyala province,” Staff Lieutenant General Abdulamir al-Zaidi said on Monday.

The retaking of the Diyala province was a symbolic victory for Baghdad after five months of fighting ISIS.

Diyala has seen months of fighting, especially in the Jalawla and Saadiyah areas in the province's north, which were held by ISIS, and areas near the town of Muqdadiyah, which the militants repeatedly attacked but never took.

According to the army, 70 members of pro-government militias and at least twice that number of ISIS fighters were killed in the operation near the town of Muqdadiyah in the latest clashes.

There was no immediate claim for the double attack in Mishahada but ISIS has taken responsibility for most such attacks in recent months.